Playing The Game
by Trivial Pursuit
Summary: Andromeda Black was not a Good Person, Andromeda Tonks, however, was a saint, a martyr, someone who'd given up everything to be with her One True Love. Despite what everyone thought, Ted Tonks was not Andromeda's True Love. She wasn't even sure such a thing exists.


**Author's Note: Vulpecula is Tonks' cannon middle name, it means fox. **

**Disclaimer: I will own _Harry Potter_ when pigs fly.**

** *Author's Legal Representation would like to say that the Author makes this statement under the assumption that porcine flight is an impossibility and is not responsible in the case of actual flying swine.**

You have a warm heart for such chilly deeds.

-Ismene

Andromeda Black was _not_ a Good Person, Andromeda Tonks, however, was a saint, a martyr, someone who'd given up everything to be with her One True Love. Despite what everyone thought Ted Tonks was not Andromeda's True Love. Sh wasn't even sure such a thing existed. She liked him well enough, sometimes she could even muster up something akin to affection for the kind, if rather dull, muggleborn she called her husband. She had never felt the burning passion that the middle Black girl had seen exhibited between her elder sister and cousin or the steady, if passionless, affections of Molly and Arthur Weasley. Ted was convenient, he was a young, red-blooded muggleborn male who wanted a girlfriend and the beautiful Andromeda Black wanted to date him. It would have been exceptionally odd for him _not_ to want to date her. Andromeda could tell something bad was coming and she had no intention of getting caught up on the losing side (She was apathetic to the actual cause), so she ran away in an act of 'teenaged rebellion', she was shunned by her family and welcomed into the anti-Voldemort fold with open arms.

Andromeda never felt any particular kinship to any of the members of the Order of the Phoenix, they had treated her badly in school and were suddenly welcoming now that she had 'defied' her family. Their hypocrisy and lack of familial pride was spectacular. She missed her sisters and cousins who, despite their faults, understood her and how she saw the world, _they_ understood the importance of family, the importance of honour, the importance of being respected, the importance of pride.

She'd watched from the sidelines, never getting involved in any missions except from the peripheral comforts of her house (It wasn't her home, it would _never_ be her home, Number 12 Grimmauld Place, with its foreboding fireplaces, dark atmosphere, and her _family_ was her home). Sirius joined the Order after graduation from Hogwarts and going to the Order's meetings became just a little bit more appealing to Andromeda. She and her cousin would laugh at things that made the others sob in horror and share disjointed memories that nobody else understood. There were the other things too, the things they shared but would never speak of, Sirius had no qualms with her motivations for marriage (He had always been more Slytherin then he ever wanted to admit) and she didn't nag him about getting married and settling down (How could she when she knew there was only one girl he'd ever love).

When Nymphadora Vulpecula Tonks was born Andromeda held her daughter tightly to her chest and swore the young Nymphadora would be the most powerful and regal witch the family of Black and the Wizarding world had ever seen. She sent an owl to each of her sisters, her cousin, her uncles and aunt, and her parents. Three of the owls brought back no response, one brought congratulations and the fourth and fifth brought back dead rats. After the news of Regulus' death reached the Order they knocked back half a case of firewhiskey and vowed to crush the 'Autocratic blood traitor filth who dares try to defy the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black'. The others looked on in mild horror as she said this, though if it was the declaration or the way her cousin's lip curled upward to show off a row of bright white and slightly-sharper-the-normal teeth that made the briefest flash of fear pass over Mad-Eye Moody's visage she would never know.

The only time she ever raised her voice to her husband was the time he denounced her cousin after he was arrested (Ted hadn't been able to enter their room or eat anything she cooked for a month after that fight). When Bellatrix and her 'filthy, worthless husband' were arrested Andromeda only smiled and said she was glad her sister was out of the reach of 'that vile pig'.

For almost twenty years Andromeda lived a life of deathly boredom, watching her daughter grow up with apathetic contentment as soon as she figured out that the little girl would not allow herself to be moulded into the picture of pureblood perfection that Andromeda wanted her to be able to be. Andromeda's contact with her husband quickly dwindled so that they could go for days barely speaking a word beyond requests for the passing of objects and routine inquiries, it was almost as if they had an agreement to limit contact as much as possible. If Nymphadora ever noticed anything was amiss in her parents' relationship she never said a word. Andromeda spent most of her time alone, Nymphadora was away at school or spending the day at friends' houses, in an attempt, Andromeda assumed, to escape the oppressively suburban place the Tonkses called home. Ted was putting in long hours at the office, sometimes even weekends, and going out to the pub every night. Andromeda didn't dislike the disconnect, in fact she encouraged it, the lack of contact helped keep up her carefully formed façade that had begun to peel around the edges after all the years of wear and tear. She spent most of her time cleaning, thinking, and nursing voracious interest in astronomy.

When her cousin escaped from Azkaban Andromeda could feel her world shifting beneath her feet, something was coming but she still wasn't sure what. Talking of Sirius' breakout became a taboo topic in the Tonks household, something that confused most people immensely, after a massive fight, nay _war_ erupted between Andromeda and Nymphadora over his innocence, causing a sever rift in the maternal relations department and Nymphadora spending a week sleeping in her office. Then Bellatrix broke out and amid the hubbub of the reforming Order a new familial battle was being waged over Andromeda's desired respect for her family.

When Sirius died Andromeda was inconsolable. He was her last link to her family and now he was gone. She found it strangely fitting that it was Bellatrix who killed him. They were like two fires, when they meet one ends up burning the other out. Nymphadora stomped around the house for a week cursing her aunt to hell and back. Andromeda shoved a basket of laundry in Nymphadora's hands and told her daughter not to involve herself in things she would never understand.

Truth be told, excepting typical maternal worry Andromeda was glad to send her husband and offspring off on missions, giving her time to herself. When 'Dora' (As her daughter was now insisting they call her) fell in love with that werewolf Andromeda couldn't help but be overjoyed that her daughter had found someone to settle down with. The war crept on around her, like water, she could see it but it never touched her. Until it did.

When she received the news of Ted's death she wasn't sure what do, how to feel. She felt nowhere near the expected grief of someone who had lost their 'one true love', yet she couldn't help but feel a twinge of regret as one might feel at the death of a slight acquaintance. So Andromeda did what Andromeda did best, she flung herself into caring for her pregnant daughter, hiding behind a mask of grief and denial. When the baby popped out Andromeda wondered if anybody else noticed the baby's hair colour was the same precise shade as his Great-Aunt's glossy raven locks.

When her daughter and son-in-law died she was in her house feeding her newborn grandson. She couldn't have told you how she knew, she just felt an immense sense of release wash over her. She was alone in this world except for a sister who loathed her, a nephew she'd never met, and a gummy-mouthed grandson.

When Andromeda Black died she was completely alone. Her grandson had several children of his own, but she had slowly severed all contact with Teddy and his family.

She was completely alone and she just couldn't bring herself to care.

Everybody plays each other. That's all anybody ever does. We play parts.

-Saffron, _Firefly_


End file.
